Data Delivery

ABSTRACT

A method of sending data from a first party participating in a telephone call to a second party participating in the telephone call, comprising, in the terminal of the first party, storing, as a consequence of the telephone call, identifier data that identifies the second party; using the stored identifier data to determine automatically a destination address for a data message; and sending, during the telephone call, the data message with the automatically determined destination address. A method for sending data from a first party participating in a telephone call to a second party participating in the telephone call, comprising, in the terminal of the first party: providing, while the telephone call is on-going, a user selectable option to transfer data to another party participating in the telephone call without user specification of a destination address.

CROSS REFERENCE

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/087,429, filed on Nov. 22, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/725,274, filed on Nov. 25, 2003, thecontents of both applications being incorporated herein by reference intheir entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and devices forsending data.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

At present, if a user wishes, for example, to send a text message, theuser must enter a text messaging application, write the message and thenspecify the address to which it should be sent before sending themessaging.

It would be desirable to improve the ease with which a user can senddata using a mobile telephone.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The inventors realised that the process by which data is sent by amobile cellular telephone can be improved when the telephone isparticipating in a telephone call.

The inventors realised that when a party to an on-going telephone callwishes to send data during the telephone call, they will often wish tosend that data to the other party or parties participating in theon-going telephone call.

According to one embodiment there is provided a method of sending datafrom a first party participating in a telephone call to a second partyparticipating in the telephone call, comprising, in the terminal of thefirst party; storing, as a consequence of the telephone call, identifierdata that identifies the second party; and using the stored identifierdata to determine automatically a destination address for a datamessage; and sending, during the telephone call, the data message withthe automatically determined destination address.

According to another embodiment there is provided a mobile cellulartelephone terminal comprising: a radio cellular transceiver for enablingparticipation in a telephone call to a second terminal; a memory; andcontrol means for storing in the memory, as a consequence of thetelephone call, identifier data identifying the second terminal or itsuser, for determining automatically a destination address for a datamessage using the stored identifier data and for controlling the radiocellular transceiver to send the data message with the automaticallydetermined destination address during the telephone call.

According to another embodiment there is provided a method for sendingdata from a first party participating in a telephone call to a secondparty participating in the telephone call, comprising, in the terminalof the first party: providing, while the telephone call is on-going, auser selectable option to transfer data to another party participatingin the telephone call without user specification of a destinationaddress.

According to another embodiment there is provided a mobile cellulartelephone terminal comprising: a radio cellular transceiver for enablingparticipation in a telephone call to a second terminal; a userinterface; and control means for providing, temporarily while thetelephone call is on-going, in the user interface a user selectableoption to transfer data to another party participating in the telephonecall without user specification of a destination address.

Embodiments of the invention therefore provide an easier and faster wayto send data to a likely recipient during a telephone call.

According to another embodiment there is provided a method of sendingdata from a first party to a second party, comprising, in the terminalof the first party: storing, as a consequence of a communication betweenthe first party and the second party, identifier data that identifiesthe second party; using, subsequent to the communication between thefirst party and the second party, the stored identifier data todetermine automatically a destination address for a data message; andsending the data message with the automatically determined destinationaddress.

According to another embodiment there is provided a mobilecommunications terminal comprising: a radio cellular transceiver forenabling communication with a second terminal; a memory; and controlmeans for storing in the memory, as a consequence of the communication,identifier data identifying the second terminal or its user, fordetermining automatically a destination address for a data message usingthe stored identifier data, and for controlling the radio cellulartransceiver to send the data message with the automatically determineddestination address.

BRIEF DESCIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present invention reference will nowbe made by way of example only to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile cellular radio telecommunications network 2;

FIG. 2 illustrates the first mobile cellular telephone terminal 6 inmore detail;

FIG. 3 illustrates the process by which data is sent by the firstterminal to the second terminal while it is participating in a telephonecall with the second terminal; and

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative process by which data is sent by thefirst terminal to the second terminal while it is participating in atelephone call with the second terminal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile cellular radio telecommunications network 2.The network 2 comprises network infrastructure 4 that typically includesa switching centre connected to a plurality of base transceiverstations, a first cellular mobile telephone terminal 6 and a secondcellular mobile telephone terminal 8. In other embodiments, the network2 may be connected to the public service telephone network (PSTN) andthe second terminal 8 may be a telephone terminal or a computerterminal. The first mobile cellular telephone terminal 6 is used by afirst user 12 and the second terminal 8 is used by a second user 14.

FIG. 2 illustrates the first mobile cellular telephone terminal 6 inmore detail. It comprises: a radio cellular transceiver 20; a memory 22;a user interface 24 and a control means 30.

The user interface 24 includes a display 25, a user selection device 26such a keypad or joystick, an audio input device 27 and an audio outputdevice 28.

The control means 30 is provided, in this example, by a suitablyprogrammed processor. The processor 30 is connected to provideinformation to and receive information from the radio cellulartransceiver 20. This information includes speech and, may, in someembodiments, include data. The processor 30 is connected to read to andto write from the memory 22. The processor 30 is connected to providedisplay control signals to the display 25 and receive control signalsfrom the selection device 26. During a telephone call, it also providesspeech information received from the radio cellular transceiver 20 tothe audio output device 28 and provides speech information received fromthe audio input device 27 to the radio cellular transceiver 20. In otherembodiments one or more processors and one or more memories may be used.

The radio cellular transceiver 20 communicates wirelessly with theinfrastructure 4 of the mobile cellular radio telecommunications network2. This communication enables the terminal 6 to participate in atelephone call with the second terminal 8. The radio cellulartransceiver 20 may additionally enable the first terminal 6 tocommunicate data to the second terminal 8. This may, for example, be asa multimedia messaging service (MMS) message, a short messaging service(SMS) message or as an email message. In other alternative embodiments,the first terminal may comprise an additional transceiver (not shown)for communicating with the second terminal. Such a transceiver ispreferably a short-range wireless transceiver such as an infra-red (IR)transceiver of a low power radio frequency transceiver such as aBluetooth (trademark) transceiver.

FIG. 3 illustrates the process by which data is sent by the firstterminal 6 to the second terminal 8 while it is participating in atelephone call with the second terminal 8. The first user 12 and seconduser 14 are respective first and second parties to the telephone call.The process occurs within the first terminal 6 and is controlled by theprocessor 30.

In this example, the call is initiated by the first terminal 6 at step100. As a consequence of the telephone call the processor 30, at step102, automatically stores identifier data identifying the destination ofthe telephone call in the memory 22. In this case, the destination isthe second terminal 8 or its user 14. If the telephone call is a circuitswitched telephone call, the identifier data is the telephone number ofthe second party 14 and the memory 22 is a memory for storing dialledtelephone numbers.

If during the telephone call the first party 12 wishes to send a datamessage to the other party 14, she makes a selection at step 104. Theprocessor 30 responds to this selection at step 106 by controlling thedisplay to provide a number of alternative user selectable options. Theprovided options depend upon the application from which the selection atstep 104 is made. However, at least one option is “send to caller”, theselection of which at step 108 enables a data message to be sent withoutthe user input of a destination address.

The application is preferably context aware in the sense that it isaware that a telephone call is ongoing and the provided options aretemporarily adapted to include “send to caller” as an additional optionwhile the telephone call is on-going. This may be achieved by setting aflag in the memory 22 to indicate whether a call is on-going or not. Theprocessor 30 responds to the selection at step 106 by reading the flagfrom the memory 22. If the flag indicates that a telephone call is noton-going the options provided at step 106 include the option “send” butnot the “send to caller” option. Selection of the “send” option enablesa data message to be sent after the user has input a destinationaddress. If the flag indicates that a telephone call is on-going theoptions provided at step 106 include the option “send to caller” inaddition to the option “send”, thus augmenting the provided options.

One type of application is a data handling application such as acalendar application that stores appointments. The selection at step 104enables a user to send details of an appointment as a data message. Theselection at step 108 enables a user to send details of an appointmentas a data message to the other party participating in an on-goingtelephone call without inputting the destination address. Another typeof data handling message is a contacts application that stores contactdetails as a series of entries. Each entry may include a postal address,telephone numbers and email addresses. The selection at step 104 enablesa user to send details from an entry as a data message. The selection atstep 108 enables a user to send details from an entry as a data messageto the other party participating in an on-going telephone call withoutinputting the destination address.

Another type of application is a data creation application such as atext entry application, a video camera application or a digital cameraapplication. The selection at step 104 enables a user to sendrespectively text, a video clip or an image as a data message. Theselection at step 108 enables a user to send respectively text, a videoclip or an image as a data message to the other party participating inan on-going telephone call without inputting the destination address.

When the “send to caller” option is selected at step 108, the processor30 at step 110 automatically determines a destination address for thedata message using the identifier data stored at step 102. The processor30 automatically interrogates a database using the telephone numberstored at step 102 to obtain the destination address. The databaseassociates different telephone numbers with the data delivery addressesof different persons. Each different identifier data is associated withthe data delivery addresses of one person such as their email address,their telephone number, or their Bluetooth device address. The databasemay be the same database used by the Contacts application.

Then having determined the data delivery addresses, the processor 30 atstep 112 controls the display to present for user selection one or moredelivery mechanisms related to the determined delivery addresses.

If the determined delivery addresses includes a mobile telephone number,the delivery mechanisms may include: Short Messaging Service (SMS) whichis suitable for alphanumeric text or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)which is suitable for still images.

The delivery mechanisms presented may be related to the application fromwhich the selection has been made. Thus SMS is only presented if theselection is from an application that is text-based such as a Calendar,Contacts or text messaging. Thus MMS is only presented if the selectionis from an application that is image-based such a digital cameraapplication or an application that has the ability to insert imagestherein.

If the determined delivery addresses includes an email address thedelivery mechanisms may include email, which is suitable for having textor mark-up language as its body and files as attachments, such as imageor video files.

If the determined delivery addresses includes a Bluetooth Device addressthe delivery mechanism will include packet data.

At step 114 the user selects one of the presented delivery mechanisms.

At step 116, the processor controls the sending of the data message bythe selected delivery mechanism using the destination address determinedat step 110. The data message is sent via a new channel that runs inparallel with the voice channel used for the telephone call. If the datamessage is sent using the radio cellular transceiver it may be sent on aseparate or the same transport layer to the voice call.

If there is only a single data delivery mechanism available steps 112and 114 may be automated.

FIG. 4 also illustrates the process by which data is sent by the firstterminal to the second terminal while it is participating in a telephonecall with the second terminal. The steps 106 to 116 are the same, thesteps 100′ and 102′ are different to the steps 100 and 102 in FIG. 3. Inthis example, the call is initiated by the first terminal at step 100′.As a consequence of the telephone call, at step 102′, the processor 30automatically stores identifier data identifying the origin of thetelephone call in the memory. In this case, the destination is thesecond terminal or its user. If the telephone call is a circuit switchedtelephone call, the identifier data is the telephone number of thesecond party received via the radio cellular transceiver using call lineidentification (CLI) or its equivalent. However, when the “send tocaller” option is selected at step 108, the processor 30 at step 110automatically determines a destination address for a data message usingthe identifier data stored at step 102′ not step 102.

In the preceding examples, data is sent by the first terminal to thesecond terminal while it is participating in a telephone call with thesecond terminal and the phone automatically presents the option “send tocaller”. In another example, data is sent by the first terminal to thesecond terminal after participation in a telephone call with the secondterminal. This may occur while the first terminal is not participatingin any telephone call or it may occur while the first terminal isparticipating in a telephone call with a third terminal. The phone mayautomatically present an option to “send to the last caller”. The lastcaller may have originated or terminated the call with the firstterminal.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described in thepreceding paragraphs with reference to various examples, it should beappreciated that modifications to the examples given can be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention as claimed.

1. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and at least onememory including computer program code, the at least one memory and thecomputer program code configured to, with the at least one processor,cause the apparatus to at least: initiate a wireless voice call from acalling party to a receiving party; present, during the wireless voicecall, one or more options, based on at least one application, tocommunicate data from the calling party to the receiving party while thewireless voice call is ongoing; detect, during the wireless voice call,a selection of the one or more presented options, the selection beingmade by the calling party; and send, during the wireless voice call, thedata from the calling party to the receiving party using the selectionmade by the calling party.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, the at least onememory and the computer program code configured to, with the at leastone processes, further cause the apparatus to: determine deliveryaddress information of the receiving party, the delivery addressinformation being associated with the at least one application forcommunicating data from the calling party to the receiving party.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 2, wherein the delivery address information isdetermined before the initiation of the wireless voice call.
 4. Theapparatus of claim 2, wherein the delivery address information isdetermined upon the initiation of the wireless voice call.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the selection of the one or more presentedoptions is made without the calling party inputting a delivery addressof the receiving party.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, the at least onememory and the computer program code configured to, with the at leastone processer, further cause the apparatus to: interrogate a contactsdatabase stored on a communications device used in the wireless voicecall to determine a delivery address of the receiving party.
 7. Anapparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memoryincluding computer program code, the at least one memory and thecomputer program code configured to, with the at least one processor,cause the apparatus to at least: initiate a wireless voice call betweena first party and a second party; present, to the first party, one ormore options to communicate data from the first party to the secondparty while the wireless voice call is ongoing, each presented optionusing at least one application to provide a delivery mechanism for adelivery address of the second party; detect, during the wireless voicecall, a selection made by the first party of the one or more presentedoptions to communicate data from the first party, to the second party;and send, during the wireless voice call, the data to the second partyusing the at least one application associated with the selected deliverymechanism.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the selection made bythe first party to communicate data from the first party to the secondparty is based on delivery address information.
 9. The apparatus ofclaim 8, wherein the delivery address information comprises anidentifier for the second party obtained from a contacts database. 10.The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the identifier for the second partycomprises one or more of a telephone number, an e-mail address, and aBluetooth device address.
 11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein thedelivery mechanism is related to the application from which theselection is made.
 12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the deliverymechanism comprises a Short Messaging Service (SMS) or a MultimediaMessaging Service (MMS).
 13. The apparatus of claim 7, the at least onememory and the computer program code configured to, with the at leastone processor, further cause the apparatus to: send the data to thesecond party over a channel parallel to a voice channel used for thewireless voice call.
 14. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the selectionmade by the first party of the one or more presented options tocommunicate data from the first party to the second party is madewithout a user inputting the determined delivery address of the secondparty.
 15. The apparatus of claim 7, the at least one memory and thecomputer program code configured to, with the at least one processer,further cause the apparatus to: determine the delivery addressinformation associated with at least one application for communicatingdata from the first party to the second party.
 16. A method, comprising:presenting, during a wireless voice call between a first party and asecond party, for at least one delivery address for the second party, atleast one option to communicate data from the first party to the secondparty during the wireless voice call, each presented option using anassociated application to provide a delivery mechanism for the at leastone delivery address; detecting, during the wireless voice call betweenthe first party and the second party, a selection of the at least onepresented option to communicate data from the first party to the secondparty; and sending, during the wireless voice call, the data to thesecond party using the application associated with the selected deliverymechanism.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the data is sent using atransport layer that is different from the transport layer used for thewireless voice call.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the differenttransport layer used to send the data is a data channel parallel to thetransport layer used for the wireless voice call.
 19. The method ofclaim 16, wherein the delivery address is determined using an identifierfor the second party from a contact list of the application presentingthe at least one option to communicate data from the first party to thesecond party.
 20. The method of claim 16, wherein the delivery addressis determined using an identifier for the second party from a databaseidentifying the second party from one or more of a telephone number, ane-mail address, and a Bluetooth device address.
 21. A computer programproduct comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumbearing computer program code for use with a computer, the computerprogram code comprising: code for initiating a wireless voice callbetween a first party and a second party; code for presenting one ormore options to communicate data from the first party to the secondparty during the wireless voice call, each presented option using one ofthe at least one application to provide a delivery mechanism for adelivery address of the second party; code for detecting, during thewireless voice call, a selection of the one or more presented options tocommunicate data to the second party; and code for sending, during thewireless voice call, the data from the first party to the second partyusing the at least one application associated with the selected deliverymechanism.
 22. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and atleast one memory including computer program code, the at least onememory and the computer program code configured to, with the at leastone processor, cause the apparatus to at least: receive, by a receivingparty, a wireless voice call initiated from a calling party; present,during the wireless voice call, one or more options, based on at leastone application, to communicate data with the calling party by thereceiving party while the wireless voice call is ongoing; detect, duringthe wireless voice call, a selection of the one or more presentedoptions, the selection being made by the receiving party; and send,during the wireless voice call, the data from the receiving party to thecalling party using the selection made by the receiving party.